Final: Anti-Hero Perfect Match

The Hero:

Nina Frost is an interesting character in the novel, Perfect Match. Her job as a district attorney would clearly illustrate her as a superhero because of the lives she potentially saves. But when her own son is the life in need of saving, she goes to the extreme and almost exceeds her role of a hero. It is difficult to identify exactly which type of hero she is.

As a district attorney for rape and abuse cases, Nina Frost sees dozens of children put through the ringer to punish their abuser. Frost is completely thrown off when her own son is the victim. She is so traumatized, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She kills the priest that is accused of raping her son. This part of the book would demonstrate her being the Anti-Hero. This archetype explains that the “protagonist lacks the attributes or characteristics of a typical hero, but with whom the audience identifies.” The audience hesitantly identifies with Nina Frost because she is just a mother trying to protect her kid. Her morals are also a huge spotlight of the book. She answers the question of how far can you go to protect the ones you loved. Any mother that reads this book is faced with that reality. This conversation between Nathaniel and his mother shows how much his mom meant to him: “’You saved me,’ he said. Nathaniel put his hands on either side of my face. ‘I had to,’ I said. ‘So you could save me back’” (267). The relationship between a child and their mother is arguably the most important relationship in the world. Nina Frost is convinced that she did the right thing. Later on, it is found out that the DNA did not match up and Nina Frost killed the wrong man. She killed an innocent priest. That is where it is difficult to say she is any type of hero at all. She never tries to right her wrong, she almost goes off to kill the real rapist. Her own husband struggles to support her after her crime: “What about the things Nathaniel’s had to deal with because of what you did? I’m not saying you did the wrong thing. I’m not even saying it wasn’t something I thought of doing myself. But even if it was the just thing to do…or the fitting thing…Nina, it still wasn’t the right thing” (290). Caleb, her husband, says what everybody else is thinking. Most people think about doing unimaginable things, but that is the extent of it. The difference between Nina and everyone else is she acted on it which questions her role as a hero. The last line of the book justifies Nina as a hero: “He needs us” (351). This is her telling her husband that her son is in need. That is why she did what she did. Whether or not a person agrees with it, she is convinced she helped her son in his time of need.

I would rate this book a 6 on a 1-10 scale. It is a good story and it seems realistic until the end. I have a hard time believing a court would let a murderer free. It is also the fourth Jodi Picoult book I have read. Her style gets repetitive and the stories model off of each other. The fact that I finished the book shows that it is decent because I really struggle reading mediocre books.

Reflection 10: Villains

Villains provide an important aspect to books and that is why they interest us. They are essential to stories because they add an exciting element that protagonists just cannot do. Without a villain, you just have a story about a normal person. There are no heroes when there are no villains. The hero has to overcome the villain in order for them to be defined as a true hero. The severity of the villain, or how mean the villain is, reveals a lot about readers. If a reader enjoys an exceptionally evil villain that shows that the reader has a darker side. Villains also show what our culture is capable of. If somebody can write about an evil villain, somebody can certainly act like one, or even try to mimic a villain. Some villains become heroes in the eyes of crazy people. We have seen this happen before in our society. In the famous TV show, Criminal Minds, there is a new villain in every episode. It is scary to think that people are really capable of such crimes. The stories might not be real, but I can bet there are people out there getting ideas from this show. The same goes with villains in books. It could be even more serious in books because writing can give a lot more detail than any TV show. Villains are important in reading but they can also become dangerous.

Reflection 9: Spot the great moment

Great moments of unexpectedness:

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult is a book of unexpected moments. Picoult throws the reader off multiple times in just the first half of the book.

The first moment is kind of two moments put together. Nina Frost’s son has stopped talking because he has been sexually abused. He has resorted to signing everything to communicate. When they asked who the abuser was, he signed the word father. They immediately accused Caleb, Nathaniel’s father, of abusing him. This creates a giant uproar in the house and the reader never really believes it’s Caleb. Once Nathaniel starts speaking again, he explains that Father Glen is the man who abused him. These two scenes together create a lot of confusion in the family because Caleb is angry that his wife would think he did such a thing. And Nina is angry that Caleb was capable of doing it. In the end, Caleb forgives his wife for accusing him because they need to come together to help Nathaniel recover from the traumatic experience.

Once you think the book is going to settle down, there is another twist in the story. In court, they are in the process of arraigning the priest that abused Nathaniel. Out of nowhere, Nina Frost approaches Father Glen and shoots him in the head four times. It happened so quick, I had to read it again to make sure I got it right. This is a turning point in the book because suddenly, everything is out of control. Nina takes the whole “I would do anything for my child” to a new level of crazy. The murder seems justified and you want to feel sympathy for Nina, but sometimes, you have to let the court do its job.

The most recent unexpected moment comes while detectives investigate the murder of the priest. The lab work had finally come back that proves that the DNA found in the child was the same as the DNA of the priest. This shows that he really did rape Nathaniel. The twist comes at the end of the lab report that states Father Glen had leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant. That is a game changing statement, but it took a while for me to understand why. The catch is that when you receive a bone marrow transplant, your DNA becomes the DNA of your donor’s. Therefore, Father Glen’s DNA is the same as his donor.  The great moment in this scene is where Nina finds out she has killed the wrong man and the rapist is still out there.

Reflection 8: Top 5

Sami’s Book Awards

Best Tear Jerker:

About: My Sister’s Keeper is about a girl who has cancer and her sister who has done medically everything to save her life. The sister finally decides she has had enough and goes to court so she can become medically emancipated. This brings the family together as they argue against each other while the daughter continues to get sicker.

Why it won? Jodi Picoult does a good job at making the reader become attached to the characters. The unexpected ending leaves readers bawling in confusion. The loss of a child can bring tears to the toughest person’s eyes. It is a great book that will leave you in tears.

Movie Preview

RIYL: Handle With Care, family involved stories, Jodi Picoult

Best Nonfiction:

About: Marley and Me is a man’s true story about the worst dog ever. Marley is a rambunctious yellow lab who causes more problems than most. But with those problems comes unconditional love.

Why it won? Nothing can make a reader cry more than a dog dying. Going into the book you know that is how it ends but the story makes you want to believe otherwise. It especially hit close to home because I have a similar yellow lab that is absolutely obnoxious but is a big lover. It is really easy to believe the story because of the experiences I have had.

Interview with author, John Grogan

RIYL: You like to cry, you like animals, My Dog Skip

Best Book I Was Forced to Read:

About: Night is a teenager’s true account of his experiences in Nazi death camps. The details are horrifying as he explains the everyday struggles of a death camp. The story is dark, but is necessary because there are no other ways to describe what happened in those days.

Why it won? Many books that are read for a class are painfully repetitive. This one is different. Night is about a topic that interests many. The realness of the story brings shock to readers.

Book description and review

RIYL: History, Diary of Anne Frank, World War II

Best Book That Makes You Think:

About: Pretty Little Liars is the first book of a 13 book series. It is the perfect setup to the teenage mystery series. The story is about 4 friends who are brought back together after the investigation of their best friend’s death. While figuring out who murdered the teenage girl, the friends are tormented by a mysterious texter who leads them into danger.
Why it won? Most teenage books are about vampires or romances, or both. This book is a refreshing change. The high school cliques and stereotypes are magnified. The multiple twists in the story keeps readers thinking and also have the ability to creep a reader out. Do not read at night.

Pretty Little Liars Season 1 TV Show Preview

RIYL: Pretty Little Liars TV series, The Lying Game

Best Knee Slapper:

About: Seriously . . . I’m Kidding is a collection of hilarious true stories that Ellen Degeneres has experienced. She creates an easy to read hodgepodge of tales that will make anyone laugh.

Why it won? Fan or not, Ellen Degeneres knows how to make people laugh, whether it’s on her show or in her books. Like said before, a super easy read for anybody. It is a refreshing change and a book has never made me laugh as hard as this one does.

Reader's Reviews

RIYL: Ellen Degeneres Show, Tina Fey, Betty White

Book 2 (Keeping Faith) Project Comparisons

Jodi Picoult Comparisons

It doesn’t take long to figure out that Jodi Picoult has a very definitive style. So far, I have read three of her books, My Sister’s Keeper, Handle with Care, and Keeping Faith. I most recently read Keeping Faith. The books are really good if you only read one or two of them. As I read more of her books, I start to get bored. Keeping Faith had a really good concept of a story but it is so repetitive reading the same thing over and over again.
Sick Child
In all three books there is a sick child. My Sister’s Keeper, the daughter has cancer. In Handle with Care the daughter has Osteogenesis Imperfecta which makes her extremely sick and leaves her in the hospital frequently.  In Keeping Faith, the daughter is seeing visions of God and gets hurt and sick from the visions.
Mothers
With sick children come protective mothers. Jodi Picoult makes sure to add this character in every book. In My Sister’s Keeper, the mother argues in court that her daughter needs every single medical procedure that will save her life. In Handle with Care, the mother goes to court to sue the doctor who allowed her daughter to be born. In this story, the mother is trying to gain money to help treat her kid. In Keeping Faith, the mother goes to extremes like fleeing the state to protect her child. She also goes to court to gain complete custody over Faith.
Courtroom Drama
Three similarities that come with the overprotective mother is they are in court to do what they think will better their child. The books are very courtroom heavy and it kind of seems that Picoult has had some experience in the law area, or she has just done a lot of research.
Family
Most of her books also include a family atmosphere, at least to begin with. The books I have read all start off with a husband and wife crazy in love with two children. The husband and wife then experience some trials because of their children. In My Sister’s Keeper, the husband starts to take the side of the younger daughter who believes the sister should be taken out of her pain. This causes the mom to get angry but they eventually realize they need to do what’s best. In Handle with Care, the father decides to not support the mother’s decision to go to court. The mother then kicks the husband out of the house and a divorce is filed. The end of the book explains that everything ends up okay and they don’t actually get a divorce. In Keeping Faith, part of the story is the husband has cheated on the wife so they get divorced. This then leads to a custody battle over their daughter.
Tricky Endings
Keeping Faith differs from the other two books in one area; it ends how you expect it to. The mother wins custody over the daughter and she falls in love with a perfect guy. My Sister’s Keeper has a tricky ending where the daughter who doesn’t have cancer dies and ends up donating a body organ to save her sister who has cancer. No one saw this coming. Handle with Care almost ends how you expect it, the family wins the lawsuit and they get an unimaginable amount of money to care for their daughter. The twist is, at the very end the daughter dies from slipping on ice and falling into cold water.
Jodi Picoult
All this being said, I think Jodi Picoult is a great author. It is understandable that she writes essentially the same story over and over again. She’s good at it so why stop? I also think that the books I chose are all similar because that is the style I like. She may very well have different books with different plots, but they might not interest me. So it goes both ways. It is just interesting to compare different aspects of her books to each other and really realize how similar they are.

Reflection 7: Non-Fiction

If a book is considered non-fiction, it needs to be one hundred percent true. The definition of non-fiction is, “Non-fiction or nonfiction is an account, narrative, or representation of a subject which an author presents as fact.” The most important part of that definition is that the author presents it as a fact. A fact is true statement. If there are any half-truths, you might as well call it a fictional book. I don’t understand if you make any aspect of the story up, why is it so difficult to make your book fiction? One is not better than the other in my opinion. These labels matter because while reading a particular book, a reader thinks a different way if it is true or not. There might be more sympathy if the characters in the book are real. If you are reading a non-fiction book, you do not second guess the validity of the story. Authors take advantage of readers by throwing in lies or even making up complete stories. I think if Frey lied about one thing in his story he could have lied about many other things that are not necessarily able to be checked.

Book 2 Review 3 Genre

There are a lot of different aspects to the book Keeping Faith which makes it hard to categorize into one genre. If I were to pick a major genre, I would say it is a romance. I did this more by process if elimination than anything else. I know it’s not a mystery, thriller, science fiction or fantasy.  It is just difficult to say it is a romance because others may say it just has romance sprinkled into it. The story does not revolve around this romance. There are a lot of deeper issues in the book that do not have to do with love. One of those would be the relationship a mother and daughter have, and what a mother would do to keep her child. All that aside, I would then further categorize it into a contemporary romance. The characters that end up falling in love deal with modern problems like working with and against the media. The male character has his own TV show and acts as paparazzi to the female character. I could also go as far to say it is a romantic suspense. Mariah Wright and Ian Fletcher have a forbidden love. This type of love is very interesting and keeps readers on the edge of their seat. That aspect leads to a little bit of suspense. On the other hand, the story is not that suspenseful. The definition of suspense is a state of uncertainty or anxiety about what happens next. To an extent, the love part of the story fits that definition. But like I said before, the book does not revolve around the romantic relationship that Ian Fletcher and Mariah White have. This book is a good example of not being defined and constricted by a genre.

Reflection 6: Genres

I think genres can be very helpful. They are helpful to the reader and the author. An author can create a book that is a certain genre and they know exactly what kind of audience they will attract. The reader can pick up a book in a genre specific section and know exactly what they are getting into. They are necessary when it comes to describing a book. Genres put labels on books just like stereotypes put labels on people. The difference between genres is there is no judgement in the label. It strictly tells you what kind of story the book is about. I do not think readers should limit themselves to a certain genre, just like an author should write multiple genres. But it is more difficult for an author to write different types of genres since each genre has its own style. Genres might repel readers. I think particular genres might attract the female crowd more than the male crowd and vice versa. All genres do different things for readers, some take them to a different world, some invoke thinking, while others give good laughs. Genres are key to grouping books into sections and without them, we lose organization in the book world.

Book 2 "Keeping Faith" Review 2: Cover Talk

I talked a little bit about the cover of Keeping Faith in the reflection. It is a very simple cover, but it does its job. It accomplishes the task of relating to the actual story. It almost connects to the story too literally. I think some covers are successful when they lead to individual reader interpretation. This book definitely targets a certain audience. But I think the author, Jodi Picoult, attracts the female audience to begin with. She does not even try to appeal to a different group. She knows the majority of people who read her book are women, and she sticks with it. The cover of Keeping Faith is pink and has a flower texture on it. The texture is very unique and adds a special touch.  Like many books, this one has multiple covers. The one I have is my favorite. The other ones include your typical picture of a little girl. These covers seem to be the stereotypical Jodi Picoult style. She might even use the same little girl in the covers of other books. On my particular cover, the emphasis is less on the little girl and more on the religious aspect of the book. This story has so many different pieces that could be considered important. I believe it is possible to make ten covers of this book. By the looks of it, there are at least five differing covers. The book I own also has a false jacket. It is paperback but it has the extra inside flaps that provide more information. That is also a unique touch. It is like saying the book is classy but it is also practical. I think all the covers do their jobs. It would be hard to create another one because there are already so many of them. Overall, the story is stereotypical which often leads to a stereotypical cover.

Reflection 5: Book Covers

The cover is vital when it comes to deciding whether or not I read a book. I lean more towards the simple, modern covers when I do choose a book by its cover. Covers that contain scenes or pictures are too difficult to interpret and sometimes have nothing to do with the book. It bugs me when I finish a book, and the cover is completely irrelevant.  I also do not like when books have the sleeve covering it. That is really complicated for me and I don’t like dealing with the extra piece. The book I’m reading right now has a really interesting cover. When you look at it, it’s simple and it is easy to relate to the book. But there is a textured pattern on the book that you would only discover if you touch it. It is a really cool addition and sticks out in my mind of book covers. Overall, I prefer more girly book covers. That is probably because I enjoy girly books. Typically, when a cover is manly, the story is about fighting or other manly stuff that I do not appreciate. The cover defines the book. It is up to the individual reader if that is the book they want to read.

Book 2 Review 1: Movie Adaptations

To Keep:

The Hospital Scene

This is one of the most suspenseful parts in the book. Mariah White’s daughter is on the verge of death with no explanation. Mariah was issued a restraining order away from her daughter for evidence to use in court. Mariah White goes against the court order by the advice of her own lawyer, dresses up in costume, and visits her dying daughter. As soon as she hugs her daughter, she wakes up for the first time since she was sick and said “Hi Mommy”. Those words were so powerful and this would be easily depicted in a movie. The emotions would be really interesting to see on the big screen. This scene is a turning point in the book, making it essential in the movie.

Kansas City Scene

When Mariah White and Faith White escape to Kansas City, the notorious Ian Fletcher follows them. An intense and somewhat confusing relationship is formed between Ian and Mariah. This is almost a forbidden love because Ian has been attacking and trying to prove Mariah and Faith wrong for the majority of the book. The formation of this relationship is an interesting twist in the book. It is a major plotline and the story would be lost if the movie were created without it.

Courtroom Scene

This is the part that the whole book leads up to. If the movie did not involve these scenes, the story would be lost. This is the final fight for custody over Faith. It is extremely dramatic and all people involved are verbally attacking each other. There are a lot of interesting points made during the trial that makes the reader think. This is an emotionally packed scene that is essential to the adaption of the book.

 

To Cut:

There are a lot of minor details, like the flashbacks that Mariah has that need to be cut. The book is not about her and her ex-husband's relationship. Readers get lost in the past and is definitely unnessecary and hard to show in a movie.

I would also cut the Catholic parts of the book. The priests can be kept but there are a lot of chapters that explain a lot of the Catholic religion. Those explanations are not really needed for the overall understanding of the book.

Reflection 4: Best and Worst

I don't read very many books, so when a book I read becomes a movie, I make sure to go see it. In some cases, the book and movie work well together. But sometimes, the movie does not complement the book in any way.
Best Adaptations:
Marley and Me
This is the best adaptation that I have personally seen. The book and movie are so similar. The movie provides good visual description that the book was unable to provide. The book is non-fiction so it is easier create a movie out of it, especially if the author can contribute to the accuracy of the movie.
Some People Disagree
The Last Song
The casting for the movie really contributed to the accuracy of the book. The movie provided a good complement to the book. The story was consistant through both pieces which really leads to a great adaptation.
Harry Potter

The fantasy genre is easily adapted from book to movie. I only read the first three books of the series, but I have seen all of the movies. The movies and books corresponded well with each other. The characters were casted perfectly and the famous school of Hogwarts exceeded expectations.

Worst Adaptations:
My Sister's Keeper
The book alone is very well written. The movie was one of the biggest disappointments. For the most part, the movie was good and entertaining. But the ending was completely different and caught me off guard. Accuracy is a big component when it comes to movie adaptations and that is where this failed.
Dear John
 The book was okay so the movie did not have many expectations. The movie was even worse than the book. It had no excitement and I left the theater surprised on the quality of the movie. Any expectations I had, were not met.